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[wolfinthesnow]

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[wolfdreamer]

[He nods, tugging at Summer's fur for a few moments, thoughtfully. But it would be better just to say it, surely, and so he looks up at Jon.]

Are you?

[wolfinthesnow]

[Jon looks thoughtful for a moment, like he trying to measure out if he is or if he isn't.]

I don't know.

[wolfdreamer]

What do you mean?

[wolfinthesnow]

I have never tried to be Ghost, Bran. So I don't know. The wildlings say it, but it does not make it true.

[wolfdreamer]

Then why do they say it of you, if you have never done it?

[wolfinthesnow]

What other kind of man keeps a direwolf as a companion?

[He puts his hand on Summer]

[wolfdreamer]

[He frowns, studying Summer--but he has no answer to that question.]

Have you had wolf dreams?

[wolfinthesnow]

[He's quiet for a long moment before he nods]

[wolfdreamer]

[He nods back, and takes a steadying breath.]

First I had wolf dreams. I was always Summer, and I was always running. And then I dreamed that I was Summer, in the godswood at Winterfell--and my friends Jojen and Meera Reed were there. This was when they first came to Winterfell, so we were not friends yet--but they truly were in the godswood, and so was Summer. And Jojen touched Summer, and it was--

[He shuts his eyes a moment, lost with the remembering--but he says the word:] It was like falling.

That was a wolf dream, but later, I could borrow Summer's skin whenever I wanted. And I wonder if you could, too. Not Summer, but Ghost.

[wolfinthesnow]

[Jon thinks about this for a moment]

But why would I?

[wolfdreamer]

Because of the direwolves, maybe. Or because we are of the north. I don't know, not really. I don't know why I can do it, either, but--I can. And it begins with wolf dreams.

[wolfinthesnow]

Do you think we are all wargs?

[wolfdreamer]

[He bunches his fingers in Summer's fur as he considers that question, with a little frown.]

Rickon has had wolf dreams--or I think that he has. And Arya-- [He darts a guilty glance up at Jon when he says their sister's name.] She told me not to speak of her. She says she isn't Arya--but I sent Summer after her, and I borrowed his skin, and-- and she did, too.

[wolfinthesnow]

[Wait. This is important, now]

She is Arya, she's just being stubborn about it.

[wolfdreamer]

She's always stubborn. That's how I know she is still Arya. But she helped me with my legs--and she forgets to be nameless, sometimes. I can tell. If Nymeria were here, maybe it would help her to remember, the way Lady helps Sansa.

[wolfinthesnow]

[She called me a bastard, he thinks.

He pets Summer's side again]

It's not remembering she needs, Bran.

[wolfdreamer]

Then what does she need?

[wolfinthesnow]

She needs to stop acting as though Arya is dead.

[wolfdreamer]

But she can't unless she remembers who she is. She knows she isn't dead, but she's forgotten--and she needs our help to remember.

[He pushes his fingers through Summer's fur again and says, quietly:] She lost her wolf.

[wolfinthesnow]

Is that it?

[wolfdreamer]

[Maybe, he might say. I think that it does. But it is more than thinking now. So he looks straight at Jon and answers true.]

Yes. So we must help them.

[wolfinthesnow]

They do not want my help, Bran.

[wolfdreamer]

They do. People can want help without saying it, or without even knowing it.

[wolfinthesnow]

Bran, they may want yours, but they don't want mine.

[Jon knows that for sure. He's been told as much.]

[wolfdreamer]

[Perhaps it admits too much to say this--perhaps it is something a lord would not say, or a man older than Bran--but Jon is his brother, and so he looks at him.]

I want your help.